The Nation


October 16, 2000


High-Tech Cheap Labor
by DAVID ENRICH


Only months after a major victory on China trade, Big Business is again
scavenging for cheap labor. This time, the high-tech industry is pressuring
Congress to allow additional foreign technicians--particularly computer
programmers and engineers--to work temporarily for US corporations. Congress,
with the President's blessing, is poised to deliver a sweet deal to the
industry, at the expense of US and foreign workers.


The 1990 Immigration Act set aside 65,000 H-1B visas each year to allow "the
best and the brightest" from around the world to work in the United States
for up to six years. In 1998, when the high-tech industry complained about an
unbearable shortage of skilled US workers, Congress raised the annual H-1B
ceiling to 115,000. The industry promised it was a one-time solution. But
tech companies devoured the visas. Now their Washington lobbyists claim they
are still starving for qualified workers.


Such evidence as exists, however, casts doubt on the alleged labor shortage.
A recent study by the IT Workforce Data Project concluded that over the past
fifty years, "there is no evidence that any serious shortages of technical
professionals--engineers in the past, information technology specialists
now--have ever occurred." If the industry faces a tight labor market, it's
self-imposed. The industry has largely ignored its vast underrepresentation
of women and minorities. Few tech firms recruit at African-American job
fairs, and less than 1 percent of blacks with high-tech degrees have Silicon
Valley jobs. The corporations also often shun older workers, who might
require retraining or better pay.


The tech industry craves cheap labor, not skilled workers. H-1Bs, which are
temporary and prohibit the holder from switching employers, fill the bill.
H-1B workers cannot unionize, are likely to accept uncompetitive wages and do
not receive the employment benefits that similarly skilled Americans would
demand. Many companies reportedly force their foreign employees to work in
factorylike conditions and routinely withhold wages and violate contracts.
Foreign workers, dependent on their jobs for legal residence in the United
States, are defenseless: If they complain, they risk being fired; if they
quit, their employer can sue them. Their only legal remedy is a bureaucratic
federal complaint process with few enforcement options. These foreign
temps--indentured servants of the new economy--can either put up or go home.


Nonetheless, Bill Clinton, Congress, Al Gore and George W. Bush support
raising the H-1B ceiling to approximately 200,000. Why? The computer industry
alone has pumped more than $72 million into federal campaigns. Orrin Hatch
and Spencer Abraham, sponsors of the Senate's leading H-1B bill, have
received nearly $1 million in high-tech campaign contributions. David Dreier
and Zoe Lofgren, authors of the industry-endorsed House legislation, each
enjoy tens of thousands in Silicon Valley funding. Other powerful legislators
have also profited handsomely from cooperating with Big Technology.


The industry is reminding its political welfare recipients that expanding the
H-1B program is a top priority for the nation's tech firms. Their lobbyists
are meeting one-on-one with politicians and are barraging Capitol Hill with
daily "fact sheets." Chairmen of House and Senate campaign committees have
received letters explicitly warning that tech companies will not support
legislators who dawdle on H-1B. With control of Congress up for grabs,
opposing the industry hardly seems worth the risk.


Representative Tom Davis, who chairs a GOP campaign committee and supports
raising the H-1B ceiling, acknowledged, "This is not a popular bill with the
public. It's popular with the CEOs." Once again, powerful corporations and
unprincipled politicians are preparing to take advantage of vulnerable
foreign labor, while many US workers are left out in the cold.


DAVID ENRICH